Ed Gerdes

Ed Gerdes was initially a student of Franz Deutmann (1867–1915), a Dutch painter and photographer, and later attended evening classes at the Society for the Working Class in Amsterdam. He frequently visited the Alps and lived in the Dutch East Indies for one year in 1915. After that he worked in Amsterdam, Laren, and Den Haag and was appointed head of the Department of Architecture, Fine Arts and Crafts in the Office of Public Information and the Arts. Gerdes was also a member of various art associations, including Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam. In the beginning, he copied Old Masters and then painted portraits, still lifes, church interiors, and landscapes inspired by Impressionism. Later he turned to the New Objectivity. He was a successful painter but was also highly controversial because of his Fascist leanings. During World War II he was a member of the Dutch Nazi Party NSB. In 1948 Gerdes was sentenced posthumously for collaboration with the Germans.

He participated in the Art Competitions at the 1924, 1928 and 1936 Olympic Games. In 1928, he was also a member of the Art Committee of the Organizing Committee, after having already been a member of the Netherlands’ art commission for the representation at the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924. The only verifiable painting is the portrait of female fencer Sophie van Holkema (1904-1959), in the catalog of the 1928 art competitions. She was Dutch champion in the women’s foil in 1924 and 1926.